The Pattern Seekers cover art

The Pattern Seekers

How Autism Drives Human Invention

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Pattern Seekers

By: Simon Baron-Cohen
Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

A groundbreaking argument about the link between autism and ingenuity.

Why can humans alone invent? In The Pattern Seekers, Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen makes a case that autism is as crucial to our creative and cultural history as the mastery of fire. Indeed, Baron-Cohen argues that autistic people have played a key role in human progress for 70,000 years, from the first tools to the digital revolution.

How? Because the same genes that cause autism enable the pattern seeking that is essential to our species' inventiveness. However, these abilities exact a great cost on autistic people, including social and often medical challenges, so Baron-Cohen calls on us to support and celebrate autistic people in both their disabilities and their triumphs. Ultimately, The Pattern Seekers isn't just a new theory of human civilization, but a call to consider anew how society treats those who think differently.

©2020 Simon Baron-Cohen (P)2021 Tantor Archaeology Biological Sciences Evolution Evolution & Genetics Mental Health Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Power of Neurodiversity cover art
Avoiding Anxiety in Autistic Adults cover art
Understanding Autism in Adults and Aging Adults: 2nd Edition cover art
Autism in Heels cover art
Thinking in Pictures cover art
Divergent Mind cover art
The PDA Paradox cover art
Our Autistic Lives cover art
The Prince cover art
The Molecule of More cover art
How Emotions Are Made cover art
This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health cover art
Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships cover art
Changing Our Minds cover art
Autism cover art
Drama Queen cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Really sorry Simon. I’m sure your book has interesting content but had to drop by Chapter 2 due to the narration style…like every sentence had an exclamation mark at the end. Wore me down.

Couldn’t get past the voice

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book was bitter sweet for having two Autistic children myself.

The overall message is great, breaking down how Neurodiverse identify, analyse and interact with their world, the problem really is that it was all said within a few chapters and therefore adding nothing of real substance once the message was clear.

Highlights the benefits of difference

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narration of this audiobook is mechanical and stilted.

The content is interesting. It is a sham that charts and appendices are not provided in a pdf.

A poor audiobook. I may well have to buy this to do the content justice.

Awful reading, fascinating text

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
big fan of SBC but, for me, there are a few very slow chapters of this book that I feel excessively cover what is essentially a 3 step process, which is easy to grasp pretty much immediately....diluted the book, again just my opinion

mixed bag

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I find this topic really interesting and was excited to find it as an audio book. I wondered however if the narrator was actually an AI - there is some intonation but it's almost always in the wrong place or on the wrong word, as if the narrator did not truly understand what the words meant or how they fitted together. There was also a moment that made me giggle where the slightly monotone narrator mentions an autistic child who spoke in a monotone voice and then has to adjust their voice to sound like the child and does somehow manage to become a little more monotone than they already are - I say this as someone who is neurodivergent and may also speak in a monotone way

Such an interesting topic but strange narration style

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was such an interesting insight into the different brain types. It was so engaging and useful. It has really helped me to understand my daughter.

Amazing Insight

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There are so many other books to read or listen to, I have decided to drop this one in the middle. If you have ever picked up a book or a lecture on neuroscience, you will very easily notice holes in author's argumentation.

Move along....

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent book but the narration is awful, the guy speaks every sentence with the same cadence and inflection, and i found it impossible to focus on the content as i just wanted it to end. Switched to the written format and highly recommend. Please though, stay away from anything narrated by Jonathan Cowley

Can't listen to this narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really wanted to listen to this book but the style of the narration stopped me getting further than the first couple of chapters. The speed and tone felt very robotic and this made it hard for me to take in the information.

Not keen on the narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I learned a lot about myself, which is why I bought the book in the first place. The information was well presented and comprehensive. This didn't have the kind of bias against autism other books I've read have (sadly) had, but went instead into the details of how it's possibly formed, how it affects people's lives in both good and challenging ways, and gave me personally a lot of tools to manage everyday life as an autistic adult.

Interesting read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews